Introducing Twin Stars - A Scenario-Based Solo System

Two cosmic adventurers are in a tricky scenario and must work together. By rolling and manipulating dice for special abilities and combos, you can be the one that guides them to victory.

Button Shy Games is excited to announce Twin Stars, a single player game system that comes in tiny modules and is highly customizable as we release new modules. Each module is just 3 cards; a scenario and the two characters that are working to get through the scenario. Players will provide their own dice and coins (or use one of our support packs).

The game is played by rolling two dice and placing each onto a character. Instant and combo effects may occur and assist or detract them from the mission. If a combo effect doesn't occur, then you must reduce a die by one digit and re-roll the other die. You will repeat until a combo effect occurs, and it will hopefully advance you on your journey. There is plenty more to discover as we go, so let's dive in!

The very first module places you right into a starship's jail cell. Of course, you need to escape, and you need to do it without getting caught by the guard. He's large, armed and probably capable of disarming you (and we don't mean he'll take away your weapons). If you can find it, there's a pick nearby that will help you tunnel out faster, but at the risk that you might hurt yourself in your hasty escape. It's risky, but your survival is at stake.

In this scenario, rolling 2 Stars will get you one step closer to escaping, or it'll get you the pick if you would like to take that risk. Once you have the pick you can move slightly faster (it only requires a Check and a Star), but it also requires a skill check in which a fail results in -2 health. Depending on the characters' skill levels, current health, and the guard's location, this can be very risky. A roll of 2 Checks will either move the guard back or get you a step towards escape, but at the potential loss of 1 health for a failed skill check. Sometimes that's just what it takes to get out alive.

Now some of that sounds bad, but here comes the real tough part. A roll of two alerts, triggers the guard and moves him even closer to you. And due to the nature of being in a dark cramped tunnel, any instant has a potential drawback. You need to either alert the guard or perform a successful skill check to avoid -1 health. Breaking out of this jail is no piece of cake.

And finally there's a glimmer of hope. At the easy level, players start with 3 energy (medium gets 2 and hard gets a measly 1). Energy is used to re-roll a die or activate a character's special ability. Each character is very different and will present an entirely different challenge / strategy when trying to Escape the Brig!

Twin Stars was designed by Jason Tagmire (Seven7s, Maximum Throwdown) and Mike Mullins (Bottom of the 9th, Pentaquark) and is part of Button Shy's Pocket Universe. Our first glimpse into the universe was Pod-X, a wallet game where players are trying to escape from a crashing starship (The Exspectrum). Then, in Universal Rule players are trying to colonize and destroy planets in their own little corners of the galaxy. Twin Stars takes us to a more intimate level with small but important scenarios throughout the universe.